Bumsted: Seeing double in the AG’s office

Statehouse correspondent Brad Bumsted has been investigating Attorney General Kathleen Kane long before a judge recently held her for trial on a felony and seven misdemeanors. But even Bumsted had to do a double-take to make sure he was seeing the right thing when she turned up at court.

Did Kane use her identical twin as a decoy?

Reporters and photographers had been duped at Kane’s recent preliminary hearing in Norristown on criminal charges linked to leaking grand jury testimony, right? That’s the way the story took off through the blogosphere, leading to a New York Post piece with a headline saying, “Foxy Attorney General Tricks Media With Twin Sister.”

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, in the red dress, walks into a preliminary hearing in Norristown by following a few steps behind her twin sister, Ellen Granahan.

First off the elevator in the Montgomery County Courthouse was Ellen Granahan, the attorney general’s twin sister, wearing a black jacket over a white dress. There were two men walking in front. It’s unclear whether they were agents of the attorney general or local law enforcement officers. Within a few seconds, Kane got off the elevator, maybe 30 yards behind her sister, wearing a red dress. Kane’s current contingent of five bodyguards accompanied her.

Kane needs the extra security because she’s disrupted drug operations of Mexican cartels and the cartels may be after her, Kane’s spokesman says.

Photographers and TV cameras zoomed in on Ellen, the first twin to walk the media gauntlet. But wait, why would Kathleen Kane risk having her sister out front as a decoy if the cartels are really after her? She wouldn’t put her twin in harm’s way.

And to what end? The attorney general was seated at the defense table in minutes.